President tells eight hundred generals the homeland is a 'training ground'; the Defense Secretary, alongside, complains about beards and weight.

Hon. Tuesday morning. Quantico, Virginia. Eight hundred American flag officers in one amphitheater. The Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, at the lectern. The President, behind him.

Hegseth talked first. He talked about standards. He used the word warrior a lot. He said the era of unacceptable appearance is over. He announced that all combat troops will be held to the highest male standard. He announced no more beardos. He announced physical fitness tests twice a year.

And then he said this. Quote. It is unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.

He said this in front of the generals and admirals. From a podium. Looking at the generals and admirals. About the generals and admirals. Out loud.

Hon. The men and women in that room have served this country for thirty and forty years. They have commanded carrier strike groups. They have led airborne divisions. They have flown combat missions in three wars. They have buried people they signed deployment orders for. Some of them are not in the shape they were in at thirty-five. That is true of every human being who has aged. That is also true of the Defense Secretary, who is forty-five.

You do not, when you are the junior man at the podium, call out the physiques of the four-stars in the front row. You especially do not do it first on the agenda. Forty years in a uniform earns you a moment of not being insulted from the lectern about your body.

Then the President spoke. He talked, in the prepared remarks, about military spending and aircraft. He went off-script. He told the room the homeland is a training ground. He told the room they would be needed against the enemy from within. He used the phrase the enemy from within more than once. He looked at the audience while he said it.

The audience, on the broadcast feed, did not move. I have watched footage of cabinet meetings. Cabinet meetings applaud. They lean. They smile. Eight hundred flag officers in an amphitheater listening to a president talk about the enemy from within did not move. They did not applaud. They did not nod. They sat. That is the picture from Tuesday. That.

A retired four-star, Admiral James Stavridis, went on the cable news Wednesday morning and used the word bizarre. That is, in retired-four-star, strong language.

You ever notice how the people who say they are for the troops are also the ones who insult the generals’ physiques at the first all-hands.

Funny how that works.